The dreaded K30 aperture motor failure strikes again

Detailed instructions of how to strip down the K-30 are given on the Penta-Club site.

Use Google Translate ....

http://www.penta-club.ru/forum/topic/137296-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5-%D1%81-%D0%BA30/page__st__180


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Many thanks

Thank you

It appears that my K30 has developed this aperture motor fault, or something very similar at the weekend...bought around August 2012 from a Glasgow Pentax pro dealer so an early batch I assume... With a 16-85 lens attached shots are very dark at f5.6 but if you drop this to f22 and above you get a better shot but still dark. I am also finding on live view I am getting better exposures at f5.6 for example. Several months ago I noticed in live view a strange 'flashing pixelisation' on some elements of the view in the screen. Given it was still useable and the age of the camera, I was dealing with that issue but the aperture issue renders the camera useless. It has been a great camera and I would always go back to it despite an upgrade to a K3 over a year ago. The size and weight was very handy when I wanted to travel light. Now, at 4 years old I expect chances of repair FOC are slim to zero. The Sale of Good Act now seems to be superceeded with the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which talks about claims up to six years so I wonder if it is worth a letter to Ricoh...? Not worth paying for a costly repair, but I will miss the K30....wondering what I could possibly look out for as a used replacement, although I see the K50, KS1 etc all seem to have reports of the same problems...?
Regards Dave

Your rights under the Sale of Goods Act are against the retailer, and you'll need an expert to say that the fault was inherent and not due to wear and tear, etc. Given the high number of reports about this issue hopefully an expert will have no problem giving you what you need. If the retailer won't play ball, then you'll probably need to sue. You have up to 6 years from purchase to take action.

You may all be interested in this. http://www.thepentaxforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3290&p=34781&sid=34727e6ab4a...

Looks like someone has acknowledged the issue at last!!!

Good luck.

Thanks for the information, I expect the retailer won't want to know about it, and the Small Claims process up here isn't as straightforward as England and probably not worth the effort I will contact the retailer and post up the outcome, and will then follow up with Johnsons if required....certainly worth pursuing further. Regards Dave

Just to add to the weight of evidence. I used manual lenses from an old Spotmatic for a couple of years so there was no problem. To get with it I bought a 35mm Pentax lens and was surprised to find the first shot was black. You think it’s you to start with, but after looking into it is isn’t. Fortunately, only the first shot is black at the moment and all subsequent shots are correctly exposed. I’m reluctant to rely on Ricoh doing the honourable thing that somebody else experienced so at the moment I click once and then again.

I was interested to see the recent news about a class action against MasterCard. Why? Because it would seem to be driven by the new UK Consumer protection legislation.

Perhaps those of you with this Pentax problem could look at banding together and approach Johnson's/Pentax en masse for a resolution to this issue?

I have this problem with my K30. It's damned embarrassing when on an Assignment. Does anyone know if this is transferred to the K70

If it was a BMW air bag issue the K30 would be recalled years after the warranty expired, but a failed camera diaphragm motor doesn’t command the same attention. Nobody is going to sue because their picture is black. I was ‘brand committed’ having had Pentaxes for many decades, but now I’m disillusioned. Some say the problem has been eliminated on the later K series but I have no personal experience to know if it's true.

Personally I have never had any serious problem with any Pentax camera I have owned over the years.
Those problems that made for lengthy forum threads are actually minor and only have affected a very small percentage of cameras. All camera brands have had their 'issues'.
It is way too soon to know if the K-70 will throw up a problem which might affect a dozen or two users, it's highly unlikely that the same mechanism used in the K-30 would still be used four and a half years later.

Between myself, family and many friends I have known of a very large number of Pentax cameras in circulation. The only problem was a fault in a K10D a few years back, that was fixed by Johnsons for less than £80.

Add to that the number of users on here compared to the number who have posted about an issue and we get a very low failure rate. As mentioned before, Pentax had the best reliability result in a quite extensive survey that was published a few years ago. As Steve says, all marques have problems from time to time and most have more problems than Pentax.

Personally I think that's why the K-30 situation was poorly handled. I fully agree in that the brand has been really reliable, so I would have thought Pentax would have worked harder to rectify any problems that did occur, to protect that brand image. When you've got camera's failing within their two year warranty period, you've got a problem that's not going away. Burying their heads in the sand over it doesn't send a very positive message about being valued as customers of the brand.

That and the mirror flop saga are the only major issues I'm away of with Pentax cameras in recent times. That position is worth protecting .

Seriously though, what's the percentage Richard? Do you have figures? We hear regularly and loudly from the same small group of people. But where are the figures to back up a claim that there have been major issues ignored by Ricoh? There's always going to be a certain number of cameras that develop faults, same with any hardware in reality. But to be raised to the level where the manufacturer stands up and releases a notice then organizes a recall would take more than just a few dozen cameras failing world wide.
And failing within the warranty period or after the warranty expires is just academic.